Tidal may be in trouble again, as Jay Z’s streaming service is facing a $5 million lawsuit from Yesh Music, LLC and John Emanuel who plays in the band the American Dollar. For a service which was promising to take care of its artists and to pay every artist with a higher royalty rate than any other streaming service, it’s not a good sign.

Yes, Prince, the cherry on top, was made to be here to support Tidal -a music streaming service so moribund, Jay Z forgot he was part owner as he attempted to dance his way around forgetting to get clearance for a sample on “Big Pimpin'”. But apparently he wanted to be the little man at the top of the Christmas Tree -like Barbra Streisand, all by himself and has bailed on the only possible reason to go.

The brand was selling clothes with slogans such as ‘Kanye is my Homie’, ‘Pharrell is my Brotha’ or featuring nicknames like Jay Z’s ‘Hova’, Beyonce’s ‘Cayonce’, or even lyrics and the Hollywood Reporter is saying that The lawsuit ‘asserts a whopping 58 claims’.

Crown – Jay Z – Years later, and I am beginning to think maybe I am underestimated Holy Grail. The problem with the album is it came out around the time of Yeezus and felt a little whatever in its shadow, but this song, with Travis Scott’s excellent hook, is actually pretty darn out there – B+

What? After making so much noise about his Tidal streaming service, TechTimes is reporting that he is reporting he is planning an exit strategy? Is it a rumor or is the rapper giving up? Wow that would be Jay Z’s first failure? Actually with his Made in America festival cancelled downtown LA this year, it would be his second failure!

‘This is not at all a stepping back — this is a reevaluation of the model of going from one location to two to three,’ told Budweiser VP of marketing Brian Perkins to Billboard. ‘We’re a very ambitious brand, and we have a very ambitious partner in Jay Z, who also dreams big. And we always want to do big, bold things with music under the moniker of Budweiser Made In America.’

Back three years to opening night at the Barclay Center and the vibe around Jay Z’s performance is mammoth. I wish I was writing back in the “Fade To Black” reunion days… mow that was a concert. This one? It didn’t live up to the hype but what does, right? 2012, Hov was still a minority stock holder and Barclay Center was opening..

Rap is not responsible for the decline of Christianity, on the contrary they push the God agenda all the time… but O’Reilly is a simple guy with huge blinders on each side of his big head… A decline of Christianity? I see that as a good thing, may be the product of more science in school curriculum?

We wouldn’t have joined it anyway, even if they had asked. We don’t want to be tribal. I think smaller bands should get paid more for it, too. Bigger bands have other ways of making money, so I don’t think you can complain. A band of our size shouldn’t be complaining. And when they say it’s artist-owned, it’s owned by those rich, wealthy artists.’

We still don’t know much about Tidal, but according to The Verge,Tidal reportedly offered millions of dollars and an equity stake to artists such as Coldplay, Rihanna, Daft Punk, Alicia Keys, Calvin Harris, Jack White, Madonna, Usher, Arcade Fire, Deadmau5,… in exchange of their exclusive conten

I have never heard of a business enterprise whose main selling point was more money for the billionaire artists and not a thing for the consumers. What sort of business model is that? There are many things that might concern the average fan, but Beyonce not making enough money isn’t among them.

There is a very simple test you can do on Tidal, it allows you to play five songs (you don’t pick the songs, and I got the Killers, James Blake, Daft Punk, the Eagles and the Dixie Chicks) using two sound sources A and B. You can switch back and forth between A and B during the short music sample, then determine which of the two is the high fidelity sound source. I was using my Macbook connected to a Logitech speaker system. I paid around $40 for them and they sound okay for me, but I did very badly at the test, I guessed 2 out of 5 correctly!! Not bad? Are they kidding?

Jay Z recently purchased the streaming service for some $56 million and he wants to make it as a competitor to Spotify, or Rdio. Alicia called it the ‘beginning of a whole new era’,… but for whom exactly? A new era for Jay Z and Madonna to make even more money? What’s new exactly? A new sound? a better listening experience?

If “We Can Be Together” sounded like a good trip (man, that Grace Slick can sing, how did you lose her cool?) it wasn’t, it was based on Black Panther’s war cry, “Up against the, motherfucker”) and from there it blows blues hot (try a terrific “Wooden Ships” and folk cool. Add on top two of the best songs, the title track and “Somebody To Love” and you have a career peak.

“She is a terrific dancer – without the explicit moves best left for the privacy of her bedroom. Jay Z is a very shrewd businessman, but I wonder: Does it occur to him that he is arguably crossing the line from husband to pimp by exploiting his wife as a sex object”

Rappers are still going strong even those I haven’t heard anything from for a long time, like Diddy ($60 million and $1.90 per second)! Beside this you have Calvin Harris ($66 million and $2.09 per second), Jay Z ($60 million and $1.90 per second), and Drake ($33 million and $1.05 per second)

Sure, that was in the far past but it was real problems, and he had real problems, between jail and paparazzi, and pussies, no not that kind, the world accumulated on him and the problems mounted… 99 of them.

This was the third “Global Citizen Festival” where 60K music fans and concerned citizens win tickets by completing tasks to aid the extreme poor and if at this time you are wondering when I’m gonna get to the music, you know how I felt, standing for six hours

[They needed something to] ignite that tour. It’s called a ‘Jedi mind trick.’ The Jedi mind trick fools you a lot of the time. So things you see, sometimes, are …. All I know is: everyone is talking about it. Ticket sales went up, Solange’s album sales went up 200% …’

I have zero doubt it is difficult to do much but rub your audiences noses in the flash of funds at a Stadium extravaganza but like Bono and Bruce, Jay Z seemed capable of it and this show, not unlike the entire on the run concept, was forced.

So .. is that why we get Jay Z? The ol’ standby guy is back headlining the Global Citizen Festival along with the amazing Gwen Stefani and No Doubt. Personally I would reverse the bill making Gwen the headliner but hey it aint my gig

Whatever your taste and wherever it may or may not coincide with the free for all 4Knots festival at the Southside Seaport, still, nobody can deny the garage rocking , country hawking Those Darlins, a band I’ve planned on catching yp with for a coupla years now. And did I mention it is free? Saturday, July 12th 1pm – 8pm

As promised, an annotated jay Z and Beyonce setlist plus a Spotify (except for bey’s last album mostly). Impressive… to a degree and they do go deep enough, right? Here and there they trade off songs (“Hard Knock” followed by “Pretty Huts”) and sometimes they have little run of songs, but it isn’t two separate shows: they comingle freely.

Ah, yes, reality. Now that the script writers of reality shows are suing for royalties the question as to what is real becomes murkier though Lennon’s “nothing is real” probably comes closest. And this sense of nothing is real invaded the music world this week.

Nas Is Like… Nas – 1999, this was one of my fave tracks, the verse is all spit strong rap and choppy beat but the chorus is half a man and half amazing and my question is why does it sound so much like… A